Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Oh, Mary! You've gone crackers!!!

So, I have been on a mission.
A mission to find a suitable 'copy cat' recipe for Mary's Gone Crackers.

A month or so ago, while discussing icky gluten and my desire to steer away from it with my neighbors...they turned me on to this swanky little snack. I was SOLD immediately...gluten free or not, "healthy" or not, they were just plain good.

Ahhhhhhh but the kicker. At our local health food store, as much as I LOVE the place... they are more pricey than I want to pay. Of course, if I want to foot the bill I can order in bulk and the price per box plummets, but where's the adventure in that!?

I finally did it though.
After reading several other knock off recipes, which I am sure worked for the folks that made them, I really had to settle in the end, for tweaking everything into one fantastic copy cat recipe.

While they cooked I measured out the rest of the ingredients.
I also preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

Next I added the cooked brown rice to my blender (it would work so SO much easier in a food processor, but, well...that's a story for another day)...I pulsed it into a paste, adding *just* enough water to make it easily blended down.

Put the paste into a bowl, and add the quinoa, mixing it well.

Toss in all your yummy seeds and seasonings!

Again, mix it well.

Here comes the fun part.

Cut a small square of parchment paper (very important, foil, plastic wrap, etc. will not have the same effect)...I used a piece about 5x5 inches or so. Set it aside and grab a can of spray oil (olive!). Now you are ready to begin the tedious process of cracker smooshing!

Spray your pan. (must be directly baked on the pan...when done on parchment they do not brown properly)

Wet your hands well and shape the dough into balls 1/2 inch in diameter.

The interesting part now. You take the piece of parchment you cut, and LIGHTLY spray it with oil. (On a few batches, I 'overdid it' on the oil and you could taste it to the point of distraction). Take a flat bottom cup, or in my case the lid to the spray oil, and with the oiled side down, cover the ball with the paper, then SMOOOOOOSH it with the lid. Continue until they start sticking and you can respray the paper.

The crackers need to be thin to the point of transparency...if they are thick they don't crisp properly or brown as well. They also don't have that CRUNCH they need. Some of mine actually had gaps where it was spread so thin, and those turned out great!

And we bake! The first several batches I baked on a lower setting for a longer time. It seemed to make more sense that way, as well as a few of the other recipes I had looked over suggested this as well. One time I totally forgot and just went with your 'one-size-fits-all' 350 degree setting, and whaddaya' know...they cooked faster and were FINE. So...yeah.

I'll be honest, I cooked them in wildly varying time frames, sometimes 10 mins, sometimes as much as 20, you really want to just keep an eye on them and when they get that nice, dark golden brown color...yank them out of there! I rotated the pan a few times just to ensure they browned/crisped evenly...my oven is fickle like that.

Take them out, let them chill on the pan for a while....and there you have it!

I'm planning now to start trying variations on the recipe....Cracked Black Pepper...Rosemary and Parmesean....so many possibilities!

If you get brave and give this recipe a whirl, let me know how it turns out!

In 'what's going on at home' news...I did plant a few things in the garden today, I may try to sit down and post about that tonight or tomorrow.

I know this recipe was posted a while ago but I just found it this past week. I have been 'gluten free' for 6 years now and while the transition was difficult at first, I have come to LOVE a lot of the gluten-free alternatives...Mary's Gone Crackers being one of them. I have converted my husband and many friends to these crackers because gluten intolerance or not, these crackers rock! So that being said, my husband and I tried your recipe this week and the crackers turned out amazing. My husband has literally been having cheese and crackers with (and sometimes for) every meal just so he can eat them. Thank you so much for your post and doing all the grunt work to find a really awesome recipe! We are already planning our next batch and ideas for adding different spices to try the other varieties. Thanks again! - Keyna

Just made these copycat crackers and WOW!! Yeah, definitely labour intensive but are they ever good!!!! I used ground punmpkim seeds, chia, hemp, flax, and almonds. Cooked the kinoa in mushroom stock ( a knorr cube) with some Moroccan 5 spice blend and about 1 1/2Tbsp organic tamari. I also used a number 40 scoop to dole them out and then took a really sharp knife to cut each scoop on half before smooshing it. Baked at 350 for 24 min ( fairly long for that temp I thought but they needed it). Loves the results!

What about the Bragg's you mentioned? It doesn't seem to be in the recipe. Is it the seasoning? OrThe Amino Acids? Or the vinegar?! Lol...I'm curious how that figures into the "mix". Thanks for posting. I'm trying to avoid eating wheat also and crave a crunch.

I made these last night and they turned out great!! They taste VERY much like Mary's. I didn't have poppy seeds so I put in a little extra flax. Also, I toasted the sesame seeds lightly on a piece of foil in the oven until they were just starting to brown. When I put the first batch in, I had to bake them for a really long time, I think I had them a little too thick. I probably had them in the oven at 350 for close to 30 min. If you make them thinner they will obviously not take nearly that long. Thank you for the great recipe!!